Releasing a multitude of balloons from the ceiling of a convention hall or banquet room has become an extremely popular means for celebrating a significant or festive moment. Typically, the balloons are inflated and held within mesh bags, with the bag opening held together by a drawstring. The filled bags are then typically mounted to the ceiling of the "party" room, with a pull string extending from the bag drawstring down to a height where someone, such as the emcee, may pull on the string to release the balloons at the appointed time. This arrangement, although widely used, entails many drawbacks and headaches associated with the setup of the balloon bags, and mishaps at the time of release.
As an initial problem, the balloon bags are typically custom-sized, and must be sewn together in virtually a hand-tailored manner. Once completed, the bag is filled with inflated balloons, normally one balloon at a time. The filled bag is then raised to the ceiling, and manually affixed thereto with eye hooks or the like. The drawstring must then be fed along the ceiling and down a wall to an appropriate location for the operator to grasp, involving still further installation of eye hooks or the like. Additionally, while there is an obvious advantage to keeping the mechanics of the balloon bag release process hidden from the crowd, only so much circuity of the drawstring routing is possible.
In addition to making the installation of a balloon bag a tedious process, by requiring much of the work to take place with the balloon bag hoisted into position next to the ceiling, there is a continual risk of serious injury to the installers. Furthermore, the bags tend to be damaged in use, and are thus not reusable, in addition to the time involved for tearing down the bag and drawstring and associated eye hooks.
Lastly, almost to add insult to injury, after all of the attendant problems associated with installing the bag, there is a chance that the release "knot" will not release. This leaves the balloons within the bag at the critical moment, as the party or convention looks expectantly skyward.
Another drawback with prior balloon dropping systems is their relative awkwardness in mounting around ceiling objects and other obstacles. Specifically, in the case where there is a large ceiling fixture, such as a centrally-located chandelier, the off-center mounting of the balloon bag results in a less desired balloon distribution pattern over the crowd below. In other instances, the room or hall may be relatively short in height and thus the balloon bag must be held quite close to the ceiling and fairly spread out. This involves some additional designing of the bag and attendant mounting problems. Perhaps most disadvantageously, the balloon bags must be in plain sight of the attendees of the event in order for the balloons to drop over the top of them. This tends to ruin the element of surprise for the organizers.
Accordingly, the present invention overcomes the drawbacks of prior balloon dropping systems.